The invention relates to a machine for processing food products, comprising a processing tool that is oscillatingly driven by a motor and a drive train, and a trigger system which triggers a predetermined action of the machine at a predetermined timing in every cycle of the oscillating movement of the processing tool.
A typical example of a machine to which the invention is applicable is a pickling machine as has been described for example in DE 195 30 044 C1. There, the processing tool is formed by a needle carrier that is equipped with a plurality of pickling needles which penetrate into the food product, e.g. meat or ham, during a descending movement of the processing tool, so that pickling brine is injected through the hollow needles into the meat. During each stroke or processing cycle of the needle carrier, certain actions have to be triggered in the machine, for example, switching on the brine injection, switching off the brine injection, or actuating a stripper which strips the meat off the needles when the latter are withdrawn.
For a machine of this type, DE 101 05 490 A1 describes an example of a conventional triggering system which is formed by an arrangement of cams and cam followers.